****Photos at bottom******
Surveillance...what exactly does that
mean in terms of government collecting data on their citizens?
In the USSR surveillance was used to
manufacture fear in the populace. It was used to prevent the daily
exchange of ideas that might subvert the status quo. Surveillance was
a form of control that was used to
erode trust between individuals and
divide society. It was used to humiliate and create areas of life
that just were not discussed in public.
Everyone was expected to
conduct their lives according to proscribed rules of behavior that were much more
limiting than what we have in the US today. Surveillance helped keep the population in line.
A citizen of any country overseen by
the Republic could be brought up on trumped up charges for even
discussing topics that independent thinkers may be contemplating and
that we today may view as harmless, but that the government there
considered subversive. Any data pertaining to non-political
activities, personal matters and embarrassing details would be
collected and could be used against you.
Going into the archives to get the dirt
so to speak was performed routinely. Any thing implied could be used
against you or to manipulate you into revealing things about other
people. Everyone was targeted for speaking their minds.
For many in the USA the use of
surveillance has taken on the patina of acceptance. What is wrong
with collecting phone records if you haven't done anything wrong, say
so many? Or storing e-mails? i'm innocent, i haven't done anything wrong, i don't care if
they collect data on me.
Well read the above again. Fear was
used in the USSR to manipulate entire populations. Collecting private information was a necessary part of keeping the citizenry in line.
Fear of “terrorists” is just one
tool in our governments arsenal that is used to collect everything it can about
you. It is used in a way that is all out of proportion to the actual threat. More people have been killed by guns and cars than by “terrorist”
incidents. i'll bet you didn't give up any of your privacy to prevent gun deaths or car accidents happening to you.
If you were targeted as a potential
threat even though you think of yourself as innocent all those phone
records and internet searches could be used against you. They could
be used against me right now to trump up some case and put me away so i won't write about privacy and why it is important to keep it
private. You may not think this could happen but i do.
Did every American citizen and
permanent resident in the USA check “agree” to be spied upon. To have data collected about us and stored for who knows how long doesn't seem wrong to any of you? Is that what
we all want? To sign away all our rights to privacy without ever having a debate about it?
Edward Snowden is neither a traitor nor
a hero. His leaks were done to start a debate about what our
government is compiling on all of us. Already details are coming out
that most of the population was unaware of. This man has sacrificed
his entire life to defend our right to free speech and privacy from
the government.
My mom crammed it into me as a child to always question authority. She believed that another complacent citizenry could lead us to the same place all totalitarian countries found them selves in. Russia, Germany, China, Cuba....
As Benjamin Franklin once said: “They
who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Is the fear of terrorism worth losing all your liberty for?
i believe Edward Snowden has started the debate. Government propagandists will be hard at it trying to convince the American population that giving up their privacy is no big deal. Think long and hard about where you see this country in the future.
See ya next week. A few pics below from the past few weeks.
People watching while waiting in Manhattan
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